So we pulled out of Champaign on Saturday at 5:07 a.m., just seven minutes later than our original goal... not bad. Illinois was relatively uneventful, we stopped in Padukah, Kentucky for potty and gas and Nik graciously offered to take the wheel for awhile. Bet she is regretting that now, because just beyond Padukah we quickly realized that the state of Kentucky does not own a snow plow!!! They had about 3 inches of snow the night before, actually a bit less than Southern Illinois, but Illinois owns snow plows. One lane was completely snow packed and the other was only partially cleared. We saw most of Kentucky at 40 mph. Nik gets the Kudos for getting us through that safely... well almost... just as we got to Tennessee, the large semi hauling two yachts in front of us suddenly got over to the left lane revealing a tow truck on the shoulder trying to pull a car out of the ditch. The tow truck was fine, off on the shoulder.... the tow truck driver however had his truck door open and was standing in our lane. We could not get over because there was another semi passing us. Said semi was throwing tons of slush on our windshield, and Nikki was yelling "I can't see! I can't see". Luckily the tow truck driver, who was not smart enough to have flashing lights or orange cones warning traffic of his presence, was at least smart enough to put up his hood and dive for cover in his truck... lucky him. April and Angie were watching "Smokey and the Bandit" in the back seat at the time. Shortly after the near miss of the vehicular manslaughter April said "I bet he had a 10-100", referring to Sally Field's line in the movie when she implies she almost peed her pants. Later when I was relaying the story to Eric and telling him that we didn't have a choice, we couldn't get over in the other lane, we would have definitely hit the semi and all four of us would have perished... there was just the one tow truck driver to our four... Eric's comment was "Well I guess the needs of the many outweight the needs of the few."
Once we got to Tennessee where they own snow plows, driving was simple once again... although please note Tennessee has obviously spent so much money on the snow plows that they can't afford rest areas. We got to Lake City Saturday night about 9:30 local time, after stopping in Valdosta for supper. We headed to Orlando Sunday morning to take in the game vs. the Braves Sunday afternoon. The drive towards Orlando provided us with the opportunity to read the zillions of billboards for strip clubs, gentleman's clubs etc. The most clever name... definitely, "Cafe Risque". The was once club that advertised strippers and billiards... that brought a whole new meaning to the term "Rack 'em Up!".
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2 comments:
I know the feeling. When Marla and I went to Disney with her family, we drove through Tennessee during a snow storm. At least that's what they called it. A half inch of snow is not a snowstorm to us. They were amazed that we were going to continue traveling in that weather. Have fun in sunny FL.
JT
Congrats on making to FL. You would be amazed at what consittiutes and emergency and shuts down the south - the mere mention of snow gets most of them shut down. I hope y'all have a fabulous time - I want to hear/see lots of fun details.
p.s. i totally hear you on the problems associated with Blogger yesterday. IT was giving me a nasty time even logging in.
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